First phase of oil terminal in Garadagh to be launched in 2015

Baku. 17 November. REPORT.AZ/ Azerbaijani Cross Caspian JV is planning to launch the first phase of an oil terminal in Garadagh in late 2015.

CEO of Cross Caspian Dmitriy Solovyov said that to Report.

According to him, the condensed phase of the terminal has already been put into operation and annually through Garadag terminal about 250 thousand tons of condensate is transported from Azerbaijan's offshore field "Shah Deniz": "The condensate phase of the terminal is connected with pipeline to Sangachal terminal. The resulting condensate is exported via the Black Sea ports".

"As for the oil phase of the terminal, in the first stage, its maximum capacity will reach 8.10 mln tons per year. Investments for the implementation of the condensed phase amounted to about 50 mln manats. Implementation of the first phase involves an additional investment of 100 mln manats. In this case it is about to receive crude oil and petroleum products from tankers loaded at ports of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and further sending them to the Georgian Black Sea ports of Batumi and Kulevi through the railway, as well as the delivery of crude oil to the point of entry into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan," said CEO.

D.Solovev also said that the next phase of Garadagh terminal can be launched later in accordance with the growth of oil production in Kazakhstan in the fields "Tengiz" and "Kashagan". Overall, the project involves the implementation of three oil phases in addition to the condensate phase.

"In the future, during the implementation of all phases, terminal capacity can be increased to 25 mln tons per year," said D. Solovyov.

Garadagh terminal is located on the Caspian Sea Coast, 8 km from the Sangachal terminal AIOC.The terminal is designed to transport large flows through the developed reservoir parks in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline through the gathering facilities, or on the Georgian terminals through advanced and powerful rail loading racks.

The company Cross Caspian established in 2005 with co-founding of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (34%), AzTransRail (33%) and "Kavkaz Trans Service" (33%).